{"id":735928,"date":"2026-06-14T11:59:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/735928\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T11:59:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T11:59:16","slug":"more-than-35000-flock-to-dark-mofos-winter-feast-in-first-three-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/735928\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 35,000 flock to Dark Mofo\u2019s Winter Feast in first three days"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 35,000 people have flocked to Dark Mofo\u2019s Winter Feast in the opening three days of this year\u2019s festival, with another 30,000 visiting Dark Park, organisers say.<\/p>\n

The crowds turned out across Thursday, Friday and Saturday as the midwinter festival got underway in Hobart.<\/p>\n

Of those at Dark Park, 24,000 boarded the Spirit of Tasmania V, the vessel moored at the site with artworks installed below deck.<\/p>\n

Crowds packed the precinct over the weekend, with long queues forming to get on the ferry and some people turned away.<\/p>\n

\"\"Some 24,000 visitors boarded Spirit of Tasmania V to see artworks installed below deck. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Another 15,000 passed through the Ogoh-Ogoh \u201cto purge their fears\u201d, organisers said.<\/p>\n

The figures mark a strong start for the festival, which runs until June 22.<\/p>\n

\"\"Long queues formed at Dark Park on Saturday night. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Dark Mofo executive director Melissa Edwards told Pulse the opening weekend had transformed the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been incredible to see the streets come alive over the past few days,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n

She said the festival\u2019s music program had drawn full houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Odeon and Altar Bar have hosted sold-out gigs from clipping, Sassy 009, Dry Cleaning, Chat Pile and many more, while live performance works from international artists have taken over Hobart\u2019s City Hall and the old Pianos Warehouse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"More than 35,000 people attended the Winter Feast across the first three days. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

Edwards said crowds had embraced the festival\u2019s signature rituals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFestival-goers have come out in droves to board Spirit of Tasmania V in Dark (P)ark, revelled through the witching hour at Night Mass and queued from early morning to be one of the lucky few to see the world\u2019s most elusive film,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re honoured that so many people are getting amongst it \u2013 and there\u2019s still so much more to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Run by the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Dark Mofo marks the southern winter solstice with art, music, light installations and feasting across Hobart and the state.<\/p>\n

\"\"Crowds have packed the Winter Feast during Dark Mofo\u2019s opening three days. Image \/ Pulse<\/p>\n

The festival returned in 2025 after a one-year break, drawing close to 120,000 unique attendees and delivering more than $67 million to the state\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s program spans two weekends and more than 60 events.<\/p>\n

It closes on June 22 with the burning of the Ogoh-Ogoh \u2013 this year an effigy of the Pedra Branca skink \u2013 followed by the Nude Solstice Swim at sunrise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 35,000 people have flocked to Dark Mofo\u2019s Winter Feast in the opening three days of this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-735928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}